MegaMan:The First Net Saver
by lyokoMARVELanime
Summary: The first story in my MARVEL.EXE crossover series starting with Captain America the First Avenger. Lan Hikari and MegaMan.EXE jump into action once more as the world around them rages in the Cyber World War, against the war organization Nebula and its leader Doctor Wily. Can the two new partners face the terrors that await them? And at what cost will they need to achieve victory?
1. Prologue

_**I own nothing and more than likely never will. Like we don't already know this but still gotta say it anyways.**_

**Prologue**

_**Year 20XX**_

It was night time in the icy land to the far north, and the snow and wind blew heavily upon the large vehicle as it traveled across this barren land far north of the ocean that divided the two regions of Netopia. This vehicle contained two agents of the Official Netbattlers Association, or ONBA or simply the Officials for short, who had received a call from a rare metal miner earlier reporting that they had found something strange. It was for this reason that Agent Cossak was out here just shortly after his mission in Creamland when he was looking forward to some time off in Netfrica. The vehicle soon came to a stop when they saw a man waving a light a short distance from them, and Cossak and his associate climbed out of the vehicle and into the raging blizzard. _And yet it is still not as cold as Sharo_, Cossak thought to himself knowing that would be exactly what a certain Sharo sniper would say if he were here.

"Are you the guys with the Officials," the light carrying man asked.

"Yes we are," Cossak replied. "Now what can you tell us?"

"We were surveying the area looking for possible locations to open up a new area of the mine when we stumbled upon the object. We did not know who else to call when we started to unearth it."

"Well it is probably nothing more than an old war plane from 194X," Cossak's partner said. "People have been finding stuff like that in regions like that for some time now."

Cossak did not seem convinced but had to agree. "How soon can you get a crane out here to move it?"

The miner turned to Cossak to look at him like he was crazy. "I do not think you quite understand sir," the miner told him. "You are going to need a lot more than a crane to move this thing."

When the object in question was finally in view through the snow stormy night, Cossak saw exactly what he meant. The object did seem to be similar to an old war plane, but it was much larger. A large wing and what he assumed to be an area near the cockpit of the craft were the only things that was not under the ice and snow, and that seemed to be barely even half of the ship. Cossak was not sure what he was looking at but he had an idea of what it might be. "Get me a drill or something that we can use to make an entry point. I want to see what's inside this thing before we try to move it period."

"And when we do try to move it," Cossak's partner asked.

"We will cross that road when we get there," Cossak replied as he reached for his PET to call the nearby Officials base for back up just to be safe.

A few short hours later, their back up arrived with the equipment they needed and they had finally drilled a hole in the roof of the ship to get a man inside. Cossak and a small three man team descended into the ship on grapnel lines and activated their search lights to look around. The inside proved that the ship was in fact something from around 194X during the days of the Cyber World War, as evidenced by the older jack-in ports that used the plugs instead of the relay points normally used by the wireless PETs of today, and the structure clearly indicated that it was meant for combat. Cossak spotted an image of two curved points, one inside of the other, on both the left and right sides, connected to one and other and connected to a larger pointed shape that pointed downward with a snake like image that seemed to form an S that lay on its side in the clear center, which he recognized as the symbol for the old war organization known as Nebula hanging on a few banners and emblazoned on the floor.

_Could this ship actually be…_, Cossak began to think to himself in shock, but he was stirred from his train of thought when one of the other agents called out to him.

"Cossak you might want to see this," said agent shouted from where he was standing. Cossak made his way over to the agent who was standing near what he assumed to be the pilot's seat. As he got closer, he saw that there appeared to be something in the ice. He could not make out what it was at first, but as he got closer he began to make out what looked like deep blue armor that many of the soldiers wore during the Cyber World War and what appeared to be a shield that was deep blue along the edges and yellow on the inside except for the symbol in the center. This symbol was circular with gold on the edge of the circle and red in the middle, with a black line running diagonally through it ending in a pair of black triangles on either end of the line. It was a symbol that many people of the world were all too familiar with.

When Cossak was finally close enough to get as good a look at the object in the ice as he could in the dark, dimly lit room, he saw that the object in the ice was actually a person, who seemed to have plugged in a deep blue Plug-In PET with the same symbol under the battle chip gate as the shield had into the flight control console's charging station, and had dark brown hair with a light blue headband that also had the symbol. Seeing all this lead him to one conclusion, which the agent who had called him over asked to confirm as he queried, "Sir is that really…?"

"My god…," Cossak whispered, which was all the confirmation the agent needed. "Cossak to base camp, get me a line to Famous."

**_"_****_Sir it's three in the morning where Famous is,"_** the agent on the other end of the communicator said.

"I don't care what time it is in Electopia agent," Cossak retorted. "This guy and his NetNavi have both waited long enough."

Cossak checked his scanner as he scanned the man in the ice and confirmed his suspicion. The man in the ice was alive, and his NetNavi was in hibernation mode. Cossak smiled as the team who would help to move their frozen friend climbed down into the air craft and rushed over and thought, _It may be a few years late, but you are finally coming home. You two have been greatly missed, so welcome home…Captain Lan Hikari and MegaMan._

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><p><strong><em>AN: So this would be the prologue to the first story in my MARVEL Cinematic Universe crossover, or as I like to call it, the universe. I know this is not a very long chapter, but I will tell you right now it was not meant to be so please enjoy this and more to come._**


	2. Chapter 1

**_I own nothing in this story._  
><strong>

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><p><span><strong>Chapter I<strong>

**Year 194X**

In Creamland, a young man was running towards a large chapel that was dedicated to the ancient warriors of the spirits while the sounds of explosions and gunfire sounded. Now since Creamland was normally plagued by many enemies one might say this was normal, but it was a time of war in the era of Cyber World War I, and this young man knew that this was not a normal attack. As soon as he was inside, he slammed the door shut, and began bolting it, as the old, master of the chapel came out to see what was going on.

_"__They are coming for it,"_ the young man cried out in his native tongue.

_"__They are always trying to obtain it my boy,"_ the old man replied like it was nothing new. The young man continued to bolt the door shut though, and then approached the old man when he finally finished.

_"__Not like this wise one!"_

_"__Let them come. They will not find it either way. It is too well hidden."_

Just when the young man seemed to become calmer, he quickly began to worry again as the building shook under the force of a nearby explosion, and a moment later, the door to the chapel was blasted open, sending debris everywhere and revealing a large heavily armed tank, much different than the ones that the enemy force known as the Mavericks used.

As the old man stood up, many soldiers in strange black uniforms, different from those of the Maverick forces wore, swarmed into the room. He looked around for a moment, and saw that his young friend had been crushed by the rumble that came from the initial blast. The old preacher then looked and saw the strangely dressed soldiers were trying to open the tomb that lay in the center of the back part of the room.

"Open it," one of them shouted to the ones struggling to open it. "Hurry it up before he gets-" he cut himself off as he turned around and saw that one he was about to mention had already arrived. The man was dressed in dark brown, almost black pants, a large grey coat that went down to his knees and had red on the inside as seen by the open collar, and a dark colored hat upon his head. He carried with him a long cane that had a grey skull at the top of it, though he walked as though he did not truly need it. The way he carried himself as he walked showed he was not one who lacked confidence in his abilities, and he was also one who felt that he was superior to all and should not be trifled with.

"An impressive disguise," the grey coat wearing man said, addressing the old man. The soldiers trying to open the tomb quickly moved away as he approached. "It has taken me many years to find this place. You should be commended for your efforts." He then used his walking cane to open the tomb himself with little to no effort at all. He then reached in and pulled out what seemed to be a glowing crystal grey cube.

"The Gospel Code," the man then announced as he held the object high. "Said to be one of the most powerful artifacts that unleash great power in both the real world and the cyber world when activated." He then sneered at it. "It is not something one simply buries!" He then flung the object down and smashed it against the floor.

He strode over to the preacher and stated, "I know that it is here however. Perhaps close by even. Would you care to tell me exactly where it truly is hidden?"

"I will tell you nothing," the old man told him. "I would give my life to protect it just as others have before."

"Oh yes, yes," the skull cane carrying man replied. "I have no doubt of that, but would you be willing to sacrifice the people of this village for it hm?" He paused as he let that sink into the preacher's mind. "I am sure you have some children of your own out there. Some…some little grandchildren maybe. Are you willing to sacrifice their lives as well?" As he said this, the large machine that blew through the entrance swiveled its cannon around, clearly indicating that it was being piloted by a NetNavi whose PET was plugged into the control system.

The old man could not stop himself from letting his gaze wander over to the intricate carving of a large tree that seemed to grow its roots around multiple worlds at this, a fact that the leader of these strange men did not miss. "Ah the fabled tree of life, said to govern all worlds its roots touch as guided by the ancient spirits who once used a power not unlike our own NetNavis of today," the man said. He then ran his hand over the carving in the wall until a soft click was heard, and a small box extended from the wall. Upon pulling this box out, he opened it, and a bright, grey color light illuminated the man's face which seemed old and twisted in this new light. "Have you ever gazed upon this," he asked the preacher.

"It is not meant for the eyes of normal men," the preacher replied.

"Exactly," the cane carrying man replied as he snapped the box shut once more. "Destroy the village, leave no evidence behind," he then ordered his men.

"You fool," the preacher cried out in warning and anger. "You cannot comprehend the power you hold! It will destroy you! You will burn under its power!"

The cane carrying man turned to the older man and simply stated in an eerily calm voice, "I already have." He then raised his cane, and pressed a control in the skull headed top that caused it to shoot out at the old man. As he listened to the sounds of the cannon and multiple other weapons being fired in the small Creamland village, he rubbed the left side of his face with his free hand and stalked off, showing the world that there was about to be a new power in play in this war.

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><p>The following day in Netopia, the news of this strange attack had been published in the papers along with other news about how the war had been going. Everyone, even the men who had traveled to the registration offices, was reading about it among all the hustle of their current lives. "A lot of guys sure seem to be getting killed over there huh," a young man commented to another man at one of these registration centers.<p>

The large man turned to the man who was sitting next to him and saw a small, skinny man who did not seem anything like a soldier at first, second, or even any glance. Upon glancing down at his PET, he saw that he was still using one of the first generation models that had no crest of any kind on it and a standard level NetNavi could be seen on the screen. "Hikari, Lan," the man at the desk then called out, which caused the smaller, skinny man to set down his copy of the paper to make his way over.

"Almost makes you think twice about signing up huh," the average sized man asked the now identified Lan Hikari.

"Nope," Lan instantly replied as he walked over, which caused the man to wonder if he should watch after him like he was impressed with the small sized man's bravery or like he should be worried about how crazy the guy might be. In the end he opted to just turn back to his paper.

Lan approached the podium that the man who called his name was standing behind as said man asked for confirmation of his identity, to which he replied with a nod. The man then asked, "What did your father die of?"

"Mustard gas," Lan replied. "And his PET was destroyed so he could not send his NetNavi to bring help." Lan waited while the man looked over his file more before stating, "He was in the One-o-Seventh division and I was wondering if I could-"

"And your mother," the man interrupted.

"She was a medical soldier. Got hit, and could not shake it off. Her NetNavi was deleted while she was going for help."

The man continued to look over Lan's file until finally shaking his head negative and saying, "Sorry son I cannot approve you for duty."

Lan then begged, "Look just give me a chance."

"You would be ineligible on your minor case of HBD alone," the man told him referring to the disease that was small enough in Lan's body to not cause him to die anytime soon, but would also shorten his life and make him weaker than other men, which explained his smaller size. Lan looked down in despair as he asked if there was anything the man could do to which the man replied, "I am doing it. I am saving your life." With that he stamped Lan's registration form with the rejected symbol, and handed it to Lan.

The dejected young man then left the building a short while later after he had redressed himself in his usual attire of dark pants, white shirt with a bright orange coat, and blue headband which held his family's crest of a gold edged circle with red in the middle, divided diagonally by a black line which ended in two triangles. He then looked down at his out-of-date PET and said, "Well Rock, I guess that went better than expected."

"Chances of your success were the exact same as your past attempts," the standard NetNavi that was wearing a dark green body suit with grey gloves and boots, along with a helmet that matched the color of the jumpsuit, which Lan called Rock replied. "Recommendation: No further attempts to enlist."

Lan just let out a small growl in response to the standard Navi and wished once again for his own custom NetNavi and a more up-to-date PET. Unlike most people, Lan could not afford either one after his parents had passed away, leaving him with no other family aside from his twin brother Hub. Now both boys had a hard time supporting themselves even with the inheritance they received from their parents, especially now that the world was in the middle of another world war, this one involving the new Net Society that had been developed in the recent year as well. Despite his short comings though, both physically and technologically, all Lan wanted to do at the moment was join the army and fight to end this war much like Hub had been able to do.

A short while later, Lan was shown once again why it would be more difficult for him than it would for Hub, as he was getting beaten up by a larger guy that was being rude in the movie theater he was in. Lan, who was also in that movie theater, had told the guy to shut up and, well that leads to where he currently is, getting beat up and thrown into the pile of trash. Lan kept getting up, at one point, even bringing up a trash can lid to use as a shield, but every time he did, he kept getting hit back down by the rude man.

"You just don't know when to quit do you," the rude man stated as Lan rose up again.

"I could do this all day," Lan told him, while breathing hard. He then tried to take a swing at the larger man, but found it to be useless and soon met the pile of trash that he was being so well acquainted with once more.

Before the larger, rude man could do anything more though, someone grabbed him from behind and threw him away from Lan as he shouted, "Hey! Pick on someone your own size!"

The rude man looked and saw that the guy who pulled him away from his current punching bag looked a lot like Lan, except he was bigger in size and wore a Netopia military uniform that was colored dark tan. Not wanting to get pushed around even by a soldier, the rude man tried to take a swing at the Lan-look-alike, only to have his fist blocked and get thrown back and a kick to his back. He then took off as the military man turned and walked over to Lan, who was now standing against the wall with one hand on his knee and the other wiping a bit of something from his face and chuckled, "Sometimes I get the feeling you actually like getting beat up little brother."

Lan wiped his hand across his face once more as he let out a small growl stating, "I told you not to call me that Hub. You are only older than me by a few minutes or so. Besides, I had him on the ropes."

"Didn't look like that from where we were standing," a voice said from the pouch on the left side of Hub's belt. "Oh and Hub, you might be interested to know Lan now has another enlistment form."

Hub pulled out his PET to reveal a custom NetNavi that wore a black body suit with white stripes going up the center of his legs and ending at a white belt with the Hikari emblem on the buckle and then continuing up the center of his chest, blue body armor that was connected to similarly colored shoulder armor with a white X in the center of the chest, blue armor-like boots that reached up to his knees with gold on the soles of his boots and at the top with a red gem covering the knees, blue gauntlets with gold rings between the gauntlets and black sleeves of his body suit, white gloves on his hands that seemed to extend from the gauntlets, and a blue helmet with a red gem in the center of the front that extended down into a point shape between his green colored eyes.

"Hey X, I thought I told you not to go snooping around in my PET," Lan shouted in protest as Hub thanked his NetNavi for this new piece of information. Lan still could not figure out how his brother's Navi kept getting into it when neither one was connected.

Hub looked at the data X had retrieved and commented, "Oh so you're from End City now huh?" He shook his head as his brother shook his hand free of whatever he was wiping off his face. "You do know it's illegal to lie on these things right?"

Lan did not seem to pay him any mind as he knew there could only be one reason why his brother was dressed up in his uniform. "You get your orders," he asked to confirm his suspicion.

Hub adopted a serious, grim look on his face knowing that the other Hikari twin would not like the answer. "Sergeant Hub Hikari of the One-o-Seventh. We head out for Sharo in the morning."

Lan sighed at this and stated that he should be going with him. Hub just looked on at his twin with sadness and understanding, feeling that one of the main reasons Lan was trying to enlist was so he could somehow keep him from dying in the war like their parents had a year ago when it started.

"Hey guys come on," X called out from his PET, not being one who could stand seeing both Hikari brothers so sad or sad period. "It's not like it will be forever before you see each other again, and besides you should enjoy the time you two have got left together."

Hub smiled as he mentally thanked X for that and helped Lan to his feet fully while telling him, "Come on let's get you cleaned up and go celebrate my last night at home for a while."

Lan too smiled at that thought, having not had time to spend some time with his brother since Hub had first enlisted and decided to ask where they were going. He answered by giving Lan a newspaper article advertising a nearby theme park called _Tomorrow's Net City_ and stating, "The future."

* * *

><p>After arriving at the theme park, the two boys had a small conversation about why Lan was so determined to enlist, which lead to pointing out that Lan would be one of the only eligible bachelors left in Electopia for some time and Lan stating that he would settle for just one girl. This led Hub to reveal that he had set the two of them up with a double date, in Lan's case a blind date with the friend of a girl that Hub had asked out, and telling Lan that he had only told the girl the good stuff about the standard Navi NetOp when Lan asked.<p>

"And by that he means absolutely nothing at all," X clarified in a deadpan tone.

Needless to say, the girls were enjoying Hub's company far more than Lan's, as it was clear that the smaller Hikari twin was just there as a tag-along really. They all came to see billionaire inventor and PET designer, Shuseki Blaze's presentation for his company BlazeQuest which was unveiling a possible hover car. Everyone was amazed when the machine worked at first, but when it fell to the stage after a few sparks, Blaze stated jokingly, "Well I did say that it would be in a few years."

Everyone had a good laugh at that, and Hub turned to tell Lan that they should take the girls dancing only to see his brother had vanished. Hub went to find Lan with the girls not far behind him, and found said Hikari in a registration office. "Hey Lan come on. You are missing the point of a party, so let's go dancing already."

"You go on ahead. I'll catch up later," Lan told Hub. Hub then turned to look and saw why Lan said that.

"Are you seriously going to do this again," Hub asked in a tired voice.

"Well you never know. I might have a chance," Lan defended.

"As who, Lan from Oran Island? You cannot keep doing this just because you want to try and show you can do this."

"Hub there are men and Navis laying down their lives," Lan interrupted. "I've got no right to do any less than them. That's what you do not get. This isn't about me."

"Right, because you've got nothing to prove."

Lan was now getting slightly irritated with his brother. "It is not just that either. You're the only family I have left. I don't want you to lose you too only to have nothing more than X assuming he survives."

Hub stared at Lan sadly. While he did know Lan felt that way, hearing him actually say it was a different story. When one of the girls called out asking if they were going to go dancing, Hub turned and jovially said that they were before turning back to Lan and telling him, "I've got to go okay? Just do not do anything stupid while I am gone."

"How can I," Lan asked in jest. "You're taking all the stupid with you."

Hub then walked over and wrapped his brother in a tight hug. "You're a little punk," he told Lan softly in a tone that showed he actually cared.

"Jerk," Lan replied in the same tone as he returned the hug with a small pat on Hub's back. "Just do me two favors. One, don't win the war until I get there."

"And two?"

"Make sure you stay alive until after this war is over."

Hub let go of Lan and stated with a small mock salute, "I promise bro."

Lan watched as Hub left and then moved to walk into the building to try registering for the army once again, neither one knowing that they were being watched during their entire conversation.

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><p>Lan was in the medical exam room getting ready to pull his shirt off when someone walked in and whispered something to the doctor. The man then left and the doctor told Lan to wait where he was. "Is there a problem," Lan asked worriedly.<p>

"Just wait here," the doctor replied in a neutral tone as he left.

Lan thought that he might have been caught lying on his form and moved to get redressed. He was just slipping his shoes on when a soldier walked in, blocking the door. Lan was worried now, but then an older man walked in and asked the solider to leave. The older man looked at Lan for a moment like he was studying him, while Lan studied the man in front of him. He was clearly an older man, if his white hair and beard were anything to go by, and he wore a simple white t-shirt, dark blue tie, and black pants with what looked like a white lab coat over all this that extended down to his knees. The look in his light blue eyes seemed like one that was studying everything they looked at and yet gentle and caring. Finally, the older man spoke as he asked, "So you want to go overseas and kill some Mavericks?"

"Excuse me," Lan asked, now unsure of what was going on.

Then man smiled as he walked over and extended his hand which Lan took in a small handshake as he introduced himself. "Doctor Thomas Light of the Navi/Human Synchronizer Regiment."

"Lan Hikari," Lan replied as he released the handshake. Light then moved to place a file on the doctor's bed that was nearby as Lan asked, "Where are you from?" He had noticed the Light's accent and could not help but ask.

"Beach Street," Light answered casually. "A small apartment complex near the hospital to be exact. Before that Yumland." He then gave a small look to Lan, knowing that Yumland was one of the Maverick nations alongside Netopia. "This troubles you?"

Lan shook his head no in response which prompted Light to continue. "Where are you from Mister Hikari, hm," Light asked. "Is it End City? Okuden Valley? Castillo? Den Town? Maybe Elec Town?" Lan then realized what Light was reading in the file was his previous attempts to enlist. "Five tries in five different places," Light stated.

"That might not be the right file," Lan quickly stated.

"Oh no, it is not the results I am interested in," Light quickly reassured. "It is the five tries. You seem quite eager to join the army, but you did not answer my question Mister Hikari. Do you want to kill Mavericks?"

Lan looked around for a moment before turning back to Doctor Light and asking, "Is this a test?"

Light paused for a few seconds and simply nodded his head and said yes in reply. Lan took a deep breath and figure he might as well be completely honest with this man as he stated, "I don't want to kill anyone. I just don't like bullies, and I don't care where they are from."

Light seemed to like this answer and stated, "Well there are already so many big men and custom NetNavis fighting on the front lines, so perhaps what we need now is a little guy and a standard NetNavi."

Lan seemed to perk up at this and Light then led the way to the nearby desk saying, "I can offer you a chance, but only a chance."

"I'll take it," Lan said excitedly as he grabbed his coat and followed after Light.

"Good," Light replied. "But first, where are the little guy and his standard NetNavi from? Really?"

Lan smiled in response and simply stated, "ACDC town."

Light then stamped a paper on the file and scanned it into his PET before sending the data to Lan's and giving him the hard copy while simply stating, "Congratulations soldier."

Lan looked at the paper and saw the stamp of approval. He smiled at this and thanked Doctor Light before hurrying home to pack for his trip to the training camp that was listed on the form that Light had sent to his PET.

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><p><em><strong>AN: Sorry to disappoint if you were expecting Lan to have MegaMan right away, and before you ask no I will not be making it so that Hub becomes I think that should be made clear by the fact he has his own NetNavi. Speaking of which, if you're wondering about X's appearance just look up how he looks in MegaMan X Command Mission. I will tell you right now, that unless I deem it necessary otherwise, like in the cases of Dr. Light and X, I intend to mostly use content that relates to the MegaMan Battle Network series and the anime series that goes alongside it. Anyhow, Next Time: Lan begins his training alongside his new fellow recruits, and meets someone that will have a huge impact on his life, or two people. And our mysterious organization and their leader prepares to make their next move. Till then Read and Review<strong>_


	3. Chapter 2

_**AN: I do not own MegaMan or Captain America. Enjoy and please be sure to read and review**_

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><p><span><strong>Chapter II<strong>

A few days later, Lan had arrived at the training base in his new military green basic uniform which was slightly big on him, and received his similarly sized armor which was a darker shade of green and consisted of the basic helmet with visor, chest and shoulder armor, lower arm gauntlets, belt, and armored combat boots. Needless to say, it was no surprise to him that he was the smallest guy at this camp, but it did not stop a few people from whispering a bit behind his back, and he could already pick up on a few people that would be likely to push him around for this.

"At attention men," a female voice called out. The soldiers that were brought in to train at this base all snapped to attention in a line up along with Lan, and when he looked towards the source of this voice, he had to restrain himself from gaining a shocked look. Approaching the line of soldiers was a woman about his age with pale brown hair which had a matching pair of butterfly shaped hairclips on either side of the front, and green eyes. She wore purple colored body armor with grey-white sleeves and gloves, and black combat boots. She had to be one of the most amazing looking women that Lan had ever seen, but he was able to keep his focus and remember where he was so that he did not do anything inappropriate. "My name is Agent Iris. I am second in command of this unit and will be acting as one of the people judging you all to see if you are fit for the program."

"What's with the accent Princess Pride," a brown haired man with an x-shaped mark on the left side of his face asked as soon as Iris stood in front of him, which caused her to pause. "I thought I was signing up for the Netopian army."

If Iris was insulted, she did not show it. "What's your name soldier," she simply asked.

"Mick Kojirou ma'am," the now identified Mick replied.

"Step forward Kojirou," Iris ordered. "Now left foot forward."

Mick was about to give an inappropriate comment about his situation when Iris slammed a fist into his face and immediately kicked his feet out from under him, causing the brown haired man to eat dirt. "Agent Iris," a voice then called out.

Iris spun around and stood at attention as she returned the greeting. "Colonel Baryl sir."

"I see you are breaking in the men for action," a black haired man in a grey shirt, black pants and boots, with a tan camouflage coat, who apparently was Baryl, stated. "Good work." He then turned to Mick and told him, "Get your face out of the dirt son before you embarrass yourself any further."

Mick quickly stood up and snapped to attention as he replied with a yes sir. Baryl then began to walk along the row of men before him as he gave a small speech. "A man once said that wars are fought with weapons but are won by men. With this in mind, we are going to win this war because we have the best men…" Baryl paused when he saw Lan in the row and thought it was a small joke of some type, he then looked over to where Doctor Light was standing, who simply shrugged in response.

Baryl knew that the doctor was behind the small Hikari's presence and simply shrugged it off mentally as he cleared his throat before continuing. "And because they are going to get better. Much, much better." Lan did not miss the fact this seemed to be directed at him. "The Navi/Human Synchronizer Regiment, or NHSR, has a simple mission. To find qualified individuals to undergo a treatment to become stronger, faster warriors and first rate Netbattlers with specialized, custom NetNavis. They will be the forerunners and the first in a new breed of super soldiers and super Navis, and more importantly they will be the ones to escort Sigma Epsilon to the gates of Hell itself. You are here to train, and show that you have what it takes to take part in this process, and by the end of the week, one of you will be chosen to be the first one to become one of these soldiers and NetOps. Agent Iris will be analyzing the test results of your abilities in the training field along with the esteemed Doctor Thomas Light, one of the men responsible for creating the basics of Net Society, and will have the results available by that time. Good luck to you all."

With that Baryl walked over to the command barracks and Iris and a drill sergeant came forward to lead the soldiers to their barracks where they would unpack and stow their gear for the time they were here. The following day began many days of harsh training on obstacle courses, and long runs for the men, but it was especially harsh on Lan Hikari. The men went through the basic course runs that were typical of soldiers for as long as anyone could remember, while also having to utilize the abilities of their NetNavis to overcome other obstacles. While others could handle these with a small amount of difficulties, Lan had a harder time due to his physical state and his standard Navi and older model PET. This was not made any easier when the other soldiers made things more difficult for him, Mick in particular who seemed to get a perverse pleasure out of watching him struggle, and often led to him getting harsher treatment from the drill sergeant. As she watched this smaller sized man struggle, Iris could not help but feel sorry for Lan as she watched him, wondering how he was going to be able to make it here or on any battlefield.

Soon enough though, both Iris and everyone else who were watching him saw that Lan was more than determined to make it through. When it seemed that Lan would be calling it quits, his determination pushed him forward, and when others failed to force their way through something, Lan found a way through by simply using his mind to come up with another solution. Every time that the smaller man was either up against a wall or trying to deal with something that the other members of the unit could not handle, Lan always surprised everyone of them in his ability to succeed despite his short comings, and occasionally impressed them as well, even if only slightly. Though some were still unimpressed by him.

One of these unimpressed individuals was Baryl, who did not believe the small man could make the cut and expressed his beliefs to Doctor Light one day when he heard Light had decided who would be first to undergo the super soldier process. "You're not seriously considering picking Hikari are you Doctor?"

"I am more than simply considering it Colonel," Light replied knowingly. "He is the clear choice."

Baryl could not believe what he was hearing. "When you brought that kid onto my army base I let it slide and I figured why not maybe he could be useful to you. I didn't expect you to actually pick him."

The two men soon approached where the young man and his unit were performing basic training exercises and had just started doing some jumping jacks while Iris was running them through the drills. Baryl watched on as Lan struggled to keep up with the others. "Would you look at that? He's making me cry," Baryl told Light.

"I am looking for qualities beyond the physical aspect as I have told you many times before."

"Do you know how many committees and senators I had to go through to set all this up," Baryl asked. When Light told him he was well aware of what he had to go through Baryl stated, "Then throw me a bone here. Look at Kojirou. He's strong, fast, take orders, and most importantly he's a real soldier."

"He is a bully," Light argued.

"You don't win wars with niceness Doctor," Baryl countered as he reached back a pulled a grenade from a nearby crate. "You win wars with guts."

Light watched in shock and worry as Baryl pulled the pin and tossed the bomb out towards the unit and shouted out, "Grenade!" Instantly, the group scattered to take cover, except for Lan who dived towards the explosive and wrapped his body around it. When Iris tried to approach, Lan waved her off and shouted, "No get back! Get away!"

Everyone braced themselves for the explosion, but none came. Lan slowly sat up as it soon became clear that it was just a dummy grenade and everyone except for the other members of his group resumed their normal routines. Lan looked around and saw the other soldiers staring at him in shock, while Baryl was staring in shock and disbelief at the fact he had just proven Doctor Light right in his efforts to prove the doctor wrong, and Iris simply looked on in awe at what Lan had tried to do. He finally looked towards Baryl and Light, who seemed to have a slightly smug look on his face as he asked, "Is this a test?"

Baryl looked back towards Light, who continued to have the same look on his face as he simply shrugged in response as though he were saying he told him so. Not wanting to be completely outdone, he quickly stated, "He is still skinny."

_A problem that will soon be rectified Colonel_, Light thought surely as he watched Baryl walk away. Iris meanwhile walked over to where Lan was to offer him a hand up, knowing what had just happened, and told him and the other men that they were done for the day and to take a short run to wrap things up. Lan moved to follow the others but was stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and barely stopped himself from blushing when he saw Iris standing there smiling at him with her beautiful green eyes. _Wait beautiful? Where did that come from? Get it together Lan!_

"If Baryl did that, it more than likely means that Doctor Light has made his choice about who's going to be the test subject for the super soldier process," Iris whispered to Lan. Lan's eyes grew wide at this as he caught her hidden message that Light had chosen him. "I'd expect us to visit you later when you get back Hikari."

Iris then walked away to where Baryl had disappeared to and was shortly followed by Light, who had simply smiled knowingly at this little exchange, while Lan watched them go. His mind was reeling at this information, but he quickly shook it off as he moved to catch up with the others for the run.

* * *

><p>Later that day when he had returned, Lan had found that Iris's hunch was correct, as he was called into Baryl's command post and told that Light had chosen him. He was then dismissed and told to avoid any strenuous activity or intake of fluids that night and to get a good night's rest for the following day when he would take the procedure. Unfortunately, sleep was not something that was coming easily to him. He sat on his bunk alone in the barracks, as the others had gone into the nearby town for a bit of fun, as he contemplated over how this had happened.<p>

Soon enough, he was stirred from his musings as Doctor Light came in and asked if he could sit down and enjoy a small drink with him. Glad for the company and that the doctor was here, Lan readily agreed. As Light set out a pair of glasses Lan decided to voice his question as he requested if he could ask the doctor a question.

"Just one," Light replied as a way of saying he could.

"Why me," Lan then asked after a slight pause.

This in turn caused Light to pause as he rested the bottle of schnapps on the box that was being used as a makeshift table between the two of them. He paused for a moment as he contemplated, "I suppose that is the only one that really matters."

Light gazed at the bottle for a moment as he answered Lan's question with a small explanation. "You know many forget that when the Mavericks started the war, they began in their own country. My homeland may have been responsible for the early stages of Net Society, but we had quickly become poor, struggling to get through the day to day lives. Then Sigma Epsilon comes along with the flags and the marching and giving people ill-place hope, and when he hears of my work he came to me and said 'You. You will make us strong.' Well I am not interested, as everything I had ever created or had a hand in creating was for the betterment of mankind, so he sends the head of Nebula, the Maverick weapons development and research unit after me. The man was also once my partner when Net Society was originally being developed, and who became bitter towards me, Doctor Albert Wily."

"In the time that we had been apart, Wily had grown to be a selfish, power hungry and vengeful man. Where Epsilon saw merely myth and legend meant to inspire, Wily saw truth and advanced science that would be power of the gods. When he heard of my new work to create stronger men and super NetNavis, he tracked me down and forced me to give him the early incomplete version of the serum and his NetNavi the beta version of the program known as ExaMem."

"Did they work? Did they make him and his Navi stronger," Lan queried.

"Oh yes," Light replied sadly. "But there were side effects on both accounts. The serum takes everything that is already inside a person and amplifies it. Good becomes great, and bad becomes worse. In essence, the same can be said for the ExaMem program while the only difference is that it transforms the NetNavi into what could be considered a reflection of the strength and character of the NetOp. This is why you and your Navi Rock were chosen, because a strong man and Navi, who have known power all their lives, will abuse the power they receive, but a weak man and Navi knows the values of strength and compassion."

"Thanks…I think," Lan smiled unsure if he was complimented or not.

Light chuckled as he handed Lan the glass. "No matter what happens tomorrow Lan," Light then said as he raised his glass. "You must promise me that you and Rock will stay who you both are. Not a perfect soldier and custom NetNavi, but a pair of good men." As he said that last bit, light tapped Lan's chest where his heart would be, and the screen of Rock's PET where said Navi was watching and listening on.

"To the little guys and standard Navis," Lan said as he raised his glass in a toast.

The two then raised the glasses to their mouths but before either one could have a drink, Rock spoke up saying. "Records indicate that is not advisable for you at the moment Lan Hikari."

"Oh hey, hey, hey he is right what am I doing," Light quickly exclaimed as he snatched back Lan's glass before he could take a sip. "You have procedure tomorrow. No fluids!"

Lan nodded in remembrance as he remembered to. "Well we will drink it after then."

"No I don't have procedure tomorrow. Drink it after, I drink it now."

Lan lightly chuckled as Light took said drink and felt relaxed enough that when Light did leave, he fell right to sleep after wishing Rock good night and shutting off his PET.

* * *

><p>Somewhere in the high mountains of Eastern Electopia, a dark skinned man with a short ponytail, and dressed as a yoga instructor with a circular symbol on the front of his dark orange, sleeveless shirt that had a vertical pair of purple blocks sitting right next to each other with a single small black circle in the middle of each, and purple colored dots on either side of the two bars, walked into the office of the man who had obtained the object known as the Gospel Code that he knew as Lord Wily. Earlier that day, this same man had assisted Wily in testing the power levels that the Gospel Code could give off in simple small amounts, and they found that the amount of power the smaller sized ones gave out could power all of their inventions and weapons easily for who knew how long. This power would change not only the balance of the war, but the world itself. This matter was not what concerned him at the moment.<p>

What concerned him was the piece of news he had recently received and wished to talk with Wily about. At the time Wily was having a painter create a portrait of him, and when he saw this man enter, he quickly shut off the additional lights so that his face was hidden by the shadows. "You have something that concerns you Yahoot," Wily asked.

Yahoot quickly shook himself from his amazement at his leader and master as he voiced his query. "I had heard you found him."

Wily then slid some photographs across his desk. "See for yourself."

Yahoot approached and saw on the photographs an image of the man known as Doctor Thomas Light going into a small shop in a city somewhere in Netopia. He could not help but scoff at the idea that Wily had about his former research and science partner which Wily noticed. "You are in disagreement with what we need to have done about Light?"

"Not entirely sir," Yahoot clarified. "I simply do not see why you feel the need to eliminate him. Doctor Light poses little to no threat what so ever to us."

"On this I must agree. As Yahoot said he poses no threat to Lord Wily," Yahoot's NetNavi MagicMan stated from his PET.

"Light's super soldier serum and ExaMem program are the only true weapons that could oppose and counter our new found power you fools," Wily's Navi proclaimed. "If the Cyber Hunters were to get their hands on this and mass produce both, we would leave too much to chance against our enemies when our plans begin."

"PharaohMan please," Wily ordered instantly calming said NetNavi. "He is correct though Yahoot. We cannot afford to take any chances."

Yahoot nodded in reply and asked, "Shall I give the order then?"

Wily chuckled mildly. "It has been given."

Yahoot nodded in acknowledgement of this and made to leave before Wily stopped him and switched the lights back on. "Tell me Yahoot, what do you think," the head of Nebula asked.

Yahoot smiled with pride at what he saw on the canvas. "A masterpiece Lord Wily."

He then left as he knew full well, that by tomorrow even if they Cyber Hunters of Netopia were to succeed in creating just one super soldier and super Navi tomorrow, it would not matter, because those ones would be all they would ever be able to create for a long time.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Okay before anyone asks, yes I am setting it up so that Lan's love interest in this story is Iris, and she will NOT be a NetNavi in this story in case it was not already obvious. If you have a hard time imagining what Iris looks like in this story just try to think of an armor-style version of her outfit in MegaMan Battle Network when she's suited up. Also I have no idea how to describe Yahoot's wardrobe so that was just the best I could do, but if anyone has a better way of describing it, please let me know. Now then...<strong>_

_**Next time...Lan undergoes the change from small weak man into super soldier and Rock is transformed into a specially designed custom NetNavi. But this day will have great success, great tragedy, and much more in store for the young soldier and his cyber partner. What is it that the two will face? Witness as history is made and one battle cry is declared that will echo on throughout history for all time...**_


	4. Chapter 3

_**AN: Need I say the words? I do not own MegaMan, Captain America, or anything else that is mentioned in this story that is not an OC.**_

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter III<strong>

The following morning, Lan got up ready for the day that was ahead of him, or at least as ready as he could be. As he finished putting on his basic tan colored uniform Iris walked into the room and told him to follow her whenever he was ready. Giving a nod in understanding, Lan then grabbed his PET and placed it into the carrying case attached to his belt before moving to follow the green eyed girl outside to a car that was waiting at the entrance of the camp. As soon as they were both inside the driver drove the car off to its destination.

At first the ride for the two passengers was pleasantly silent, but at the same time neither one could help but feel that it was slightly awkward for different reasons. In Iris's case it was because of the fact that she found the small man next to her to be intriguing in some ways, and she wanted to know more about him. The problem was she did not know how to start a conversation and ended up keeping silent for most of the ride. Lan was in a similar position except he was honestly attracted to the beautiful girl next to him, and unfortunately that meant that he too had a hard time starting a conversation mostly due to the fact he had no idea how to talk to a woman.

After sometime, Lan was brought out of his musings when he realized where they currently were. As he gazed out the window he saw the familiar surroundings of his hometown, ACDC town. Figuring he might have found something to talk about he simply spoke up, "I know this neighborhood. I got beat up in that alley." As the passed by he pointed towards said alley and continued to do so for the next two places he mentioned saying, "and in that parking lot…and behind that dumpster."

"Do not forget that each of these incidents occurred after unsuccessful attempts to win in a NetBattling match," Rock commented to which Lan responded with an irritated hushing noise.

Iris silently chuckled a bit at the interaction between the two and decided to ask one of the obvious questions as to why Lan always got beat up. "Did you have something against refusing to NetBattle or simply running away?"

Lan chuckled a bit and shook his head in a negative at that. "If you start running, then they'll never let you stop," he then stated.

"That's a nice philosophy to have Lan," Iris commented.

"Say Agent Iris," Lan began before he was interrupted by said girl.

"Please just call me Iris. You don't always need to be so formal in every situation."

Lan smiled at that and continued where he left off. "I was just wondering how a beautiful dame…I mean n-not that you are a dame and I meant no offense by that…I mean you are a woman and you are beautiful…"

"You have no idea how to talk to a woman," Iris stated seeing that Lan was doing his best to not offend her in any way while speaking to her.

Lan lightly chuckled in embarrassment at that. "This is honestly the longest conversation I have ever had with one."

"I am sure you have talked to girls before."

"Not really which makes it hard to ask them for a dance."

Iris was a bit surprised at that. "Surely you have been dancing."

Lan shook his head no at that. "Not that many girls lining up to dance with a guy that they could step on. After a while I just stopped asking and figured I'd wait."

"For what?"

"The right partner," Lan replied with a sigh. Hearing him say that made Iris smile a little and she found that she liked Lan more and more every minute she was around him. _Not that I ever intend for Baryl to find out about that,_ she thought to herself.

Soon enough the car finally stopped in front of a small antiques shop that was in a location that Lan knew all too well as the place where many businesses had set up shop and then closed down later. He and Iris then stepped out of the car as the woman led him inside and gave a strange code to the person in front. A moment later a secret passage in the back opened up and the two walked through and down the short hallway concealed behind it, finally ending up in a large room with many people dressed in lab coats, who Lan assumed were all scientists, and moving around multiple computers and a large machine in the middle of the room. Everyone paused for a moment to look up at the two who had just walked in before returning to what they were doing.

Iris then led the way down the nearby stairs while Lan noted that there was a viewing booth on the level they had just climbed down from in which Baryl was greeting a government senator and his aide. After Iris stopped in front of Doctor Light, who was conversing with some of the other scientists, Lan stepped forward. Light turned around a moment later and smiled at Lan and Iris. "Ah good to see you are here," Light commented. "Did you have a good sleep Lan?"

Lan nodded in reply and confirmed he was ready for this. "Good," Light replied. "Now first I will need you to give me your PET so I can transfer the data to your new one. I know you probably do not want a new model but it will be necessary for the process of installing the ExaMem program into your Navi."

Lan nodded in understanding as he handed over his PET with Rock standing by. Light nodded in recognition and took the device in his own hand before placing it into a transfer terminal on a nearby computer next to a blue Plug-In PET. He then turned back to Lan as continued his instructions for him. "Now take off your hat, tie, shirt, and your headband, and lie back on the bed here so we can get started."

Lan gave a small glance back to Iris who had immediately turned around to hide the blush on her face at the thought of Lan without a shirt on. As soon as he finished and was lying back on the bed, the large arms of the device were lowered down into place to ensure that he would not move too much.

"Comfortable," Light asked as he moved to stand next to Lan.

"It's a little big," Lan joked in reply.

Light smiled at the young man's ability to tell a small joke despite his nervousness. "Did you save me any of that schnapps," Lan then asked him.

Light adopted a sheepish look then. "Not as much as I should have. Sorry," he then turned to Iris and suggested she would be more comfortable in the booth to which Iris replied yes with a smile and quickly moved to join everyone who was already in the booth, but not before casting a small glance in Lan's direction which he returned.

Missing this little exchange, Light spoke to one Shuseki Blaze to confirm power settings for the process were ready. "Well we may dim a few lights in ACDC," Shuseki commented. "But we are as ready as we will ever be."

Light nodded in confirmation at this and then tapped a small microphone in order to tell everyone in the booth that they were ready to begin, prompting those in the booth to take their seats. Light then cleared his throat as he began the explanation while the other scientists finished the final preparations of the machine Lan was now strapped into. "This is a two phase process that has the two phases occurring at precisely the same moment. The human subject is strapped into the machine and injected with a set amount of the super soldier serum, while at the same time the NetNavi is transferred with all other relevant data to a specialized PET and administered the ExaMem program. As the program begins to take full effect, the human subject is dosed with vita-rays to allow the serum to take full effect."

Light then approached Lan who had just received a small shot. "That wasn't so bad," Lan commented.

"That was Penicillin," Light told Lan, who shot him a disbelieving look. Light then turned and said, "Serum and program administration in 5…4…3…2…1…now."

On his word, the program was activated causing Lan's Navi to start loading the program into his system while the serum was injected into Lan at the exact same moment. The moment Lan's eyes snapped open after receiving the serum into his system, Light turned to Mister Blaze and gave him signal to seal the capsule and does Lan with the vita-rays. At the same time, if one were to look, they would see Rock begin to pixilate as his body began to undergo changes alongside his NetOp's. After steadily increasing power, it seemed things were going well until a cry of pain came from inside the capsule. Immediately Light began to panic and started calling out to Lan while banging on the capsule. Iris too became worried and rushed out of the booth to the walkway where she could be heard as she shouted out, "shut it down!"

"Mister Blaze halt the process prepare to abort and…," Light began when he was suddenly interrupted.

"No," Lan cried out. "Keep going. I can take it."

Shuseki looked to Light who nodded to continue and they did increasing to full power, all the while Rock's body continued to pixilate and change as his body suit turned to a dark blue color that could be close to black, while his gloves could be seen changing into a lighter shade of blue, and his Navi emblem changed to match the crest that Lan always wore. A moment later after a few sparks of electricity, the machine shut down and Light ordered the others to open it. When it did everyone felt the breath being taken away, because there, where was once a small skinny man, stood a taller and well built, muscular man. Feeling slightly dizzy, Shuseki and Light rushed over to help Lan as he slightly stumbled out of the machine while everyone else raced forward to see the success of Light's experiment with their own eyes.

Iris was one of the first to reach Lan as she stood in front of him, slightly blushing when she saw just how much Lan's body had changed from before, and how muscular he was now, but forced it down in order to ask, "How do you feel Lan?"

Lan finally steadied himself and stood up straight, looking around for a moment and seeing that he was now taller than Iris by about a head or so, and finally replied to her question by breathing out, "Taller."

Iris had to stop herself from touching Lan's bare chest as she quickly fumbled for a nearby shirt that Lan could throw on, while feeling ridiculous as she dumbly stated that he looked taller. As Lan pulled the shirt on, he was also handed a new vest that was similar to his old one except it was colored burnt orange instead of the bright orange he normally wore, along with his headband which he gladly and quickly tied around his forehead in its usual spot.

As Lan was doing all this, Light picked up the Plug-In PET from the station it was plugged into, and brought over to Lan simply saying, "I believe this is now yours, since the NetNavi inside is yours after all."

Lan accepted his new PET and looked at the screen to see a NetNavi that looked similar to Rock, but was also completely different. The Navi that was on the screen wore a dark blue, close to black body suit with light blue stripes going up the outsides of his suit and ending bellow his arms, and at the tops of his boots that had the same shade of blue as his gloves. He also now wore a pair of yellow shoulder pads and a blue power pack on his back almost like a backpack. His helmet was now completely blue with a pair of light blue lines on either side of a pair of yellow rectangles that went up the center of his helmet from front to back, while his ears were covered by a pair of extensions that took on the shape and appearance of Lan's crest. A small bit of dark colored hair stuck out from the back of his helmet while his face had a kind smile and a pair of dark green eyes. Lan also noted how the emblem on this Navi's chest was now an exact duplicate of the one he wore on his headband.

As Lan took in the appearance of the new NetNavi he could not believe what he saw and simply asked the only question that came to mind. "Rock is that you?"

"Not anymore Lan," the blue clad Navi replied in a cheerful, confident voice. "I am actually Rock reborn as the first ever Super NetNavi. I'm , but you can just call me MegaMan for short."

"MegaMan?"

"Yep that's right. I'm glad that we'll be working together."

Lan smiled at how different his new Navi seemed to be from his old one in comparison to Rock, while everyone continued to marvel at Doctor Light's success. During this whole time, no one noticed that the senator's aid was simply standing in the background speaking into his PET, until Doctor Light looked over and recognized him, causing him to adopt an expression of worry and fear.

A moment later, the booth exploded and everyone began to scream in panic. While that was happening the aid quickly ran over to the storage tank and took the last vile of Doctor Light's serum and a copy of a piece of the ExaMem program's data. When Light shouted out to stop him, the false aid pulled a gun and shot the doctor three times, and a moment later, the white haired man fell back into Lan's arms as he and MegaMan both cried out his name. The imposter ran off towards the exit, with Iris not far behind him. Lan looked down at Doctor Light who simply raised a hand, too weak to speak, and tapped a finger against Lan's chest, and the screen of his PET, reminding both NetOp and NetNavi alike of the promise he asked them to give him. A moment later, the good doctor fell limp and died in Lan's arms.

Lan looked on grief stricken at the loss of his new found friend, before he raised his head in the direction that Iris and the assailant had taken off in. He set the doctor down on the floor, grabbed his new PET's pouch, and set the PET inside the pouch as he took off in the direction that Iris and the assailant had gone in. As soon as he was close to the door, Lan saw Iris standing in the street, her gun raised firing at something. Lan turned to the direction her weapon was pointed and saw a taxi racing towards her, with the assassin driving. With no time to think, Lan did the only thing he could think of in that situation, and raced out to tackle Iris out of the way of the oncoming car before it could hit her.

Though he expected a thank you at first for saving her from getting run over, Iris quickly dispelled that idea from Lan's mind as she angrily shouted, "I had him!"

"Sorry," Lan apologized as he started running after the hijacked taxi. As he ran he noticed that he was now faster than before, but it was still not fast enough to catch up. That was when the cab accidentally collided with a small store window, in which Lan spotted a pair of snap-on roller skates that he quickly snatched up. After a quick jump, he snapped the skates onto the soles of his shoes and began racing after the man who had killed Doctor Light on the skates, this time keeping pace with the vehicle.

The assassin did not miss this small change in his purser's efforts, and reached out to shoot at the roller skating man. As he fired a shot, Lan quickly adjusted his weight to swerve to the side and avoided the shot. He found himself doing the same over and over again every time he tried to get close.

"Lan we're not going to get anywhere at this rate," MegaMan shouted out. Lan had to agree with the blue NetNavi, and then saw a truck with its ramp down and some wood leaning against the cab's back like a ramp and skated towards it as fast as he could.

As soon as he hit the ramp, he sped up as much as he could at that point and launched himself at over the truck, through the air, and onto the roof of the taxi cab where he grabbed a firm hold and proceeded to reach in and force the assassin to pull over. As soon as he did, the vehicle swerved and crashed into a nearby wall, while the assassin and Lan jumped free. Lan saw the assassin going for his gun again and quickly grabbed a door that had been broken off from the crashed taxi and held it up to block the shots. Lan heard nearby people begin to scream and run for cover as the mystery assassin continued to shoot at the man with a make shift shield, until the scream of a young boy rang out.

He looked through the door's window and saw that the assassin had take a hostage and he dropped the door as he ducked for cover and followed as closely as he could. He finally got to a clear area by the river where there was no one around save for him, the assassin, the hostage, and the NetNavis of each person. When the assassin saw Lan there he quickly whipped his gun towards the small boy's head. Lan quickly came out from where he was trying to placate him, only to find that he did not need to as the assassin's gun was out of ammo. That did not stop him though as he tossed the kid into the river. While the assassin made a mad break for it, Lan ran to check on the boy who he saw treading water.

"Go get him Mister," the boy called out. "I can swim."

Lan nodded and took off after the assassin. He had the man in his sights when a large industrial door closed blocking the way. Lan knew the creep who had killed Doctor Light would be long gone by the time he found a way around, but he did not know what else he could do. At least, until MegaMan shouted out to him, "Lan, jack me into the door's cyber network."

Lan pulled out his PET as he looked at MegaMan for an explanation. "I can access the controls and take out any viruses that guy put in there so you can get through. Hurry! We do not have a lot of time!"

Lan nodded in understanding, and rushed over to the nearby jack in port as he pulled out the cord from his PET that would be used to connect the device to the cyber network and send MegaMan in. As he did so, he cried out a phrase that would echo throughout history for all time to come. "Jack in! MegaMan, power up!"

As soon as he connected the plug to the port, MegaMan was instantly beamed into the door's cyber network. The blue NetNavi looked around and saw multiple viruses all over the place, but it was nothing much more than some simple Mettaurs, Swordys, and Canodumbs. Seeing his current opponents were blocking his way to the large digital representation of the door's control mechanism, MegaMan decided not to waste time and charged in slamming his fist into a few Mettaurs along the way. After some more punches, kicks, and acrobatic maneuvers MegaMan had caused the number of viruses to drop greatly so that all the Mettaurs were gone, with only a few Swordys and Canodumbs left, and he knew exactly how to deal with them.

Megaman then clenched his right hand into a fist, and morphed his fist and lower right arm into a blue blaster type weapon, which he then raised and fired at the remaining viruses with a cry of the weapon's name. "Mega Buster!"

As soon as he finished blasting away the remaining viruses, MegaMan moved towards the door's control system, only to be stopped when Lan shouted, "MegaMan watch out!"

The blue Navi looked down and saw a sphere shaped bomb roll to his feet, and he quickly jumped clear as it went off. Once he landed, he turned to see who threw it and saw what he assumed to be the NetNavi of the man they were chasing. His new opponent had a black body and wore dark orange colored boots, body armor, and gauntlets. His shoulder armor had a pair of black sphere-shaped bombs set in them, and his orange helmet showed only his similarly colored eyes while sporting a large yellow fin on top in the center.

"Who are you," MegaMan demanded.

"Not that it really matters, but the name is BombMan, and I must say from what I heard I had expected the Super NetNavi to be a little more impressive looking," the now identified BombMan mocked. "You look like nothing more than a scrawny, little kid."

"We will show you who is just a scrawny, little kid," Lan retorted. MegaMan smirked in agreement and charged at BombMan, who ejected a pair of bombs from his shoulders before kicking them towards MegaMan. The blue Navi was barely scuffed as he dodged to the side to avoid the blast, and armed his Mega Buster once more. Though his shots did a small amount of damage, it was not enough to faze BombMan that much.

"Lan I am going to need a little more here if we want to beat him," MegaMan called out. "Send me a battle chip!"

Lan was about to protest saying he did not have any battle chips, when he reached into his PET pouch and found a few battle chips in there. He assumed that Doctor Light slipped them in while he was preparing for the procedure and smiled as he mentally thanked the doctor. He then slid the battle chip he just pulled out into the battle chip slot on his PET with a cry of, "Blaster, battle chip in! Download!"

Instantly, MegaMan's arm turned into a weapon that looked similar to his Mega Buster in appearance, but had a more sleek design to it. He took aim and fired a large barrage of powerful plasma shots at BombMan, destroying the bombs he was sending towards the blue Navi. Lan really perked up at this, and figured it was time to end things as he pulled out a sword battle chip and slotted it in. MegaMan's arm instantly became a sword as he charged in through the smoke and slashed at the enemy NetNavi. Lan saw BombMan trying to get up and acted fast to stop him.

"Freeze Bomb, battle chip in! Download!" A moment later, MegaMan had thrown the icy bomb at BombMan, instantly freezing said Navi in place where he sat. He then opened the door for Lan and moved back to BombMan to hold him at sword point.

"Lan, go after our guy," MegaMan called out. "I will hold BombMan here in case he tries anything."

"Okay MegaMan," Lan replied. "I will be back as soon as I can."

With that Lan disconnected his PET after sending MegaMan a WideSword battle chip, and took off after the man who had ended the life of Doctor Thomas Light.

* * *

><p>A short while later, the assassin of Doctor Light was thrown from the water onto the shore. What he found shocking was that his pursuer had gotten past BombMan when he was sure that his NetNavi could handle the guy's small sized NetNavi. He soon realized he did not have time to learn from his mistake, as Lan leaped out of the water shortly afterward and kicked him to the ground, causing him to drop the final vile of the serum and the disk with the stolen data of the ExaMem program was dropped into the water, causing the information to be destroyed.<p>

"Who the hell are you," Lan demanded as he held the man to the ground.

His response was a grunt of a mantra and a warning. "The first of many. Illuminate one corner, and the shadows shall grow ever larger. Hail Nebula." With those final words, the man died after slipping a small pill of cyanide. Lan looked on wondering what he meant by that, but all the same recognizing the name Nebula as the name of the organization that Doctor Light had warned him about which was led by Doctor Wily.

Lan then turned to his PET to see that MegaMan had logged out after BombMan had self-deleted after uttering the same mantra as his NetOp. Lan sighed, but then paused as he looked at his arms and hands, finally allowing everything that had just happened to catch up to him, and not quite believing that he was now able to do the things he did just do.

"Lan, are you okay," MegaMan asked after a moment.

Lan smiled as he held up his PET so he could see the screen and MegaMan clearly. "I am okay," Lan said in reply. "And don't you worry, because you and I are going to make sure that Doctor Light's sacrifice was not in vain. We are going to end this war and stop Nebula no matter what."

"You think so," MegaMan asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Yeah I do. After all, as of this moment on I can tell that you and I are going to be great partners and even better friends MegaMan."

MegaMan's smile grew larger at that as he nodded in reply saying, "I feel the same way Lan."

* * *

><p>At the Nebula headquarters, Doctor Wily was giving members of Sigma Epsilon's forces a run of the facility a short time after receiving the news of what had happened in Electopia. As he gave them tour, they talked with one and other as the generals pointed out that his Nebula organization had not so much as produced one rifle to the Maverick forces in months. Wily was willing to let this ignorance slide until he heard that Sigma Epsilon had sent them with a message saying, "Doctor Wily has been indulged long enough."<p>

With that being known to him, Wily decided that he would show these men exactly what Nebula was working on, and led them to his main laboratory where Yahoot and a group of scientists were working. "As you can see gentlemen," the head of Nebula began. "Our scientists are working on creating weapons that are state of the art. Utilizing a unique energy source unlike any other, the devices will provide us with the strength to let my enemies know that I am not to be trifled with by allowing us to eliminate our enemies with but a single stroke."

"Your enemies," one of the generals asked, sounding as though he heard wrong.

"We shall have these completed within a matter of months and thus we of Nebula shall be able to strike down upon all who oppose us, including the most hostile capitols of the world, with a power that equates that of the gods," Wily finished as though he had not been interrupted.

"Thank you Doctor Wily," the same general then stated.

"For what?"

"For proving how obviously mad you are."

Before Wily could retort, one of the other soldiers that had come for the tour of the facility called out from where Wily had placed a map of his targets, exclaiming, "The Netopia capital is on this map!"

"So it is," Wily stated as he jacked his NetNavi into the weapon he was prepping ever since he arrived into the room. The young officer began to spout accusations and consequences for Wily's recent actions, when Wily gave his Navi the command to fire, instantly killing the man and leaving nothing more than a small amount of smoke where he once stood. The other two quickly moved to run for their lives, but were not fast enough, as they too met the same fate as their comrade had at the hands of one they had believed to be their ally.

Yahoot looked on incredulously at his leader, stunned by what had just happened, until Wily told him, "My apologies Yahoot, but we both knew we could no longer expand and grow under Sigma Epsilon's regime. Hail Nebula."

The scientists in the room stood at attention as the snapped their arms forward with a responding cry, "Hail Nebula!"

Yahoot looked and then adopted his usual expression as he too repeated the mantra in his usual calm, but convicted tone, "Hail Nebula!"

Wily smirked at this and moved to leave when Yahoot stopped him. "Sir, what of the supposed Super Soldier and Super NetNavi that the Hunters have created?"

Wily paused as he turned back to face Yahoot, thinking over what to do for a moment. "Have our other four top operatives deploy to our most vital bases of operation. We cannot take any chance of these two new factors discovering us and attempting to destroy our factories."

"As you command Lord Wily," Yahoot replied. As Wily left the room, Yahoot sent out the message to said four operatives. He then smirked in confidence as he thought to himself about how sorry he felt for anyone who was unfortunate or foolish enough to cross paths with any of those four NetOps and NetNavis whether they be the new super soldier and Super NetNavi, or just any enemy soldier in general.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Okay I know that in both the anime and in the video games, Bombman was a solo NetNavi, but for the sake of the story I felt it necessary to give him a NetOp, and the reason that I had left said NetOp un-named was because...well I couldn't think of a good name to be perfectly honest. Now this will also hold true for other solo Navis as you have probably noticed by now, namely by how I made PharaohMan Wily's NetNavi. In case you haven't figured out who that last solo Navi is yet, well all you have to ask yourself is who were the original villains in the first Battle Network game and the first season of MegaMan NT-Warrior? Well the first part of the first season anyways. Moving on...<strong>_

_****_Next chapter, Lan and MegaMan finally get their big break in the army, but not in the way they had expected, but soon enough Lan decides to go after a group of captured men in a nearby Nebula base with assistance from Iris and Shuseki Blaze after learning of who was among those captured, which includes a person who is very close to the young super soldier Netbattler. Tune in next time for the first mission, and Lan and MegaMan's first encounter with a Nebula elite warrior, and the face of their true greatest enemy in the war. Please read and review._****_


	5. Chapter 4

_**AN: Okay now we are starting to get somewhere on the action huh? That being said, I do not own anything from MegaMan or Captain America, or anything related to either one.**_

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter IV<span>**

A day had passed since the events that led to Doctor Light's death and the Netbattle against BombMan that had followed, and now Lan was sitting in a medical examination room where some of the doctors were getting some samples of his blood, while MegaMan was plugged into a super computer to have his code analyzed. After another sample of his blood was taken Lan turned to the nurse and asked, "Do you think you have enough now?"

The nurse nodded and Lan took that as a prompt to throw his burnt orange vest back on and roll down his sleeve. "Your blood is now the only key we have to replicating the Super Soldier Serum," Iris commented as she looked from some papers in her hands to Lan. "But sadly, without Light it will take some time before we can even think of attempting another test."

Lan nodded absentmindedly at that as he thought about the late doctor sadly. "He deserved better than this."

Iris place a comforting hand on Lan's arm as she softly spoke, "If it could work only once he would have been proud that it was you."

Lan gave the green eyed woman a small smile at that, while at the same time noting how much he enjoyed the feel of her hand. Though he was still getting used to the fact that she was now shorter than him, and the fact his arm was now much bigger in terms of muscle, there was something about the feel of her hand against him that made him feel like nothing had changed at all. It was almost as though Iris was able to make him feel like the world around them was at peace with a simple look from those green eyes of hers.

Iris to felt something relaxing from this brief moment of contact, like the arm her hand was now on was a part of something that would make everything right in the world. As she looked into Lan's eyes while he smiled at her, she felt her heart flutter for a moment as her body began to feel warmer and yet at peace with everything. She had to fight hard to hide the blush that tried to creep up onto her cheeks, but all the same she did not want to worry about anything at that moment other than her Lan. _Wait,_ Iris suddenly thought to herself. _"My Lan"? Where did that come from?_

The two were brought out of their trains of thought and shared moment when they heard the distinct shouting of one Senator Ayanokoji, who was speaking to Baryl saying, "I am demanding answers here Colonel and I assure you my list of questions is long."

The two looked at each other and nodded as they made their way down to the senator and the colonel who were walking around the submarine that the unknown assassin had tried to escape in. After Lan had stopped him, a team was sent out to retrieve the body, the discarded PET, and the sub itself for some kind of analysis, which were now all underway. "Great," Baryl replied to the senator in a tone that hid annoyance under a carefree voice. "How about we start with how this assassin got a ride to my secret military installation in your car?"

The senator instantly shut up for a moment at that as he and Baryl came to a stop in front of the submarine, where Shuseki Blaze paused in his analysis to look to the two. "What do you have for us," Baryl asked.

Blaze rested a hand on the side of the submarine as he gave a slightly tired sigh. "Well frankly, and modestly speaking, I am one the leading technology experts in the world and I cannot make heads or tails of this thing. The PET is completely useless though, as it seemed to delete all data on it almost instantly after the death of both the NetOp and the respective NetNavi, and this sub is packing technology that is…years ahead of anything that we currently have."

"Then who does have this technology," the senator demanded.

"Nebula," Baryl responded simply, yet grimly. When he received a look of confusion from the senator he asked, "I assume you have read our reports Senator Ayanokoji."

"I am on a number of different committees Baryl," the senator replied.

"Nebula is the Maverick science division, led by the scientist Doctor Albert Wily," Iris spoke up from behind them as she and Lan approached. The sight of Lan caused the senator to remove his hat and stare in awe at the young man before him as Lan stopped only for a moment to pick up his PET and MegaMan and continued over to the group by the submarine. Iris continued her explanation saying, "They were originally formed to develop sophisticated weaponry, but over time they began to carry out their own operations which suggests that they are aiming to become a force of their own, using the Sigma Epsilon to cover their tracks."

"Well exactly what are you doing about it," Ayanokoji asked, this time in a less demanding tone.

Baryl looked at the senator and briefly at Iris for a moment before responding. "We are doing it now. As of now the NHSR has been reassigned. Pack your bags Agent Iris we are heading over to Netopia to deal with Nebula ourselves. Blaze you are with us to."

The two mentioned people nodded to Baryl in recognition of this, Iris somewhat sadly, and both made to leave before they paused as Lan requested, "Sir if you are going after Wily and Nebula I would like to come with you."

Baryl barely spared the brown haired boy a glance as he gave his reply. "You are going to one of our other labs; they need you for some more tests."

Lan did not quite understand what he meant by that. "Sir the serum and the program both worked. Why do we need to do more tests?"

This time Baryl did look towards Lan. "I asked for an army on both the cyber and the human fronts, and yet all I got was you and the small blue Navi in your PET. You two are not enough."

Now what some people do not know was that out of the two Hikari brothers, Lan had a tendency to get upset easily about some things. It was actually much worse when he was a kid and people would call him weak or a loser in school, but even after learning to control his temper better he still had that tendency to get easily annoyed under certain circumstances. Needless to say, Baryl's words, actions, and overall attitude towards him had started to hit the mark on those circumstances.

"How the hell would you know that huh," Lan practically shouted, which caused everyone to pause in what they were doing for a moment. Just about everyone there knew that the two did not really get on that well, and it looked like the boiling point was about to be hit. "In fact if you are so sure of that then why don't you prove it?"

Now Lan had Baryl's attention, as the black haired colonel turned to the young man with a slight amount of curiosity, prompting Lan to continue. "I challenge you to a NetBattle and if MegaMan and I win we get to come with you guys."

"NetBattle against a rookie soldier," Baryl queried lightly. He then let out a small smirk and said, "Okay sure why not? I have not had a good reason to do so in some time either way, but know this if I win, I will decide for sure whether or not you come or not."

Lan smirked and nodded, confident that he and MegaMan could win. Iris on the other hand was anything but confident. In fact, she was seriously worried, having seen Baryl and his NetNavi in action. "Lan this is a bad idea, Baryl is a very strong NetBattler," she warned.

"Well all the better then," Lan replied. "It will give me a real test to see just how much stronger MegaMan and I are as a NetBattling team now."

Seeing that there was no way to talk either one of the two men out of this, Iris sighed and simply walked away to join the small crowd that had gathered around the NetBattling machine that would be used by some of the soldiers when they wanted to practice their skills. Lan and Baryl pulled out their PETs and then connected the handheld devices to the machine with their respective cries.

"Jack In! MegaMan, Power Up!"

"Jack In! Colonel, Power Up!"

The two NetNavis then materialized into the field, and Lan and MegaMan then gasped in surprise as they saw who their opponent's NetNavi was for the first time. He was a very tall, and very big NetNavi in a black body suit, with black armor and a blue cape that was held in place by a pair of white shoulder pads with a grey border and a single rectangular line in the center, the same style of emblem was where his belt buckle would be, except it had a yellow border around the white emblem. His left hand was covered in a black glove with a green gem on the back of his hand, while in the place of his right hand was a red gauntlet that extended into a long green sword blade. His helmet was all black save for the red gem at the forefront, and allowed long black hair to extend straight out of the back. His face was white, with a pair of green eyes that radiated with the power and soldier's instinct that was held within, while around his face was a set of red markings that extended from his chin to form a small goatee type of appearance.

The reason for MegaMan and Lan's shock was not the appearance of their opponent however, but rather because they recognized who he was instantly from some of the pictures in the paper that spoke of the war. "You're ," MegaMan breathed in surprise.

"Does that worry you," Colonel asked in a deep, baritone voice that gave off the impression of a hardened soldier but also a small amount of concern and gentleness.

Lan looked from the Navi to Baryl and then suddenly it hit him. "I knew your name sounded familiar," Lan began. "But I never dreamed that it would be you. You're the legendary Immortal Baryl aren't you?"

Baryl smirked a bit at Lan's moment of recognition. "I would not go so far as to say 'legendary', but yes I am the Immortal Baryl."

Now Lan was shocked beyond recognition, because standing before him was a legendary war hero. Baryl had become famous among both sides of the war after he led the team in the battle that became known as the Liberation of Swapopolis. It was said that he accomplished the mission with nothing more than a small five man team, including him, with minimal supplies, and no chance of requesting back up. In the end, it was Baryl and his NetNavi Colonel, who soon earned the title of the perfect soldier Navi, who eliminated the enemy base and put an end to the Maverick's control over Swapopolis. Though Lan was shocked at first that quickly became replaced with a small amount of excitement.

"Perfect," Lan stated. Baryl raised an eyebrow at that as Lan clarified, "I have actually always wanted to meet you, and now I am getting the chance to NetBattle against you. This really will prove to be a great test of mine and MegaMan's skills."

Baryl chuckled lightly at that. "Then let us see just how good of a test this will be for you Lan Hikari."

Colonel nodded and looked to MegaMan, who stated, "Don't hold back on my account Colonel. Even back when I was Rock, I have always wanted to meet and possibly battle against you myself since I saw the news about you."

"Very well then MegaMan," Colonel replied with a smile that some would say almost seemed eager and excited. "Then by all means, show me your power!"

* * *

><p>The battle was over almost as soon as it had begun, as Baryl and Colonel proved without a doubt that they were indeed as powerful as the stories made them out to be after forcing MegaMan to Log Out ending it in Lan and MegaMan's defeat. Through the battle, while Baryl was happy to see that he and Colonel inspired Lan and MegaMan so much, it was not enough to change his mind about letting Lan come with his team overseas to Netopia. He saw that Lan tended to charge in without thinking sometimes, but did see that the young man would think carefully about his moves and that there was some potential there. Sadly, he knew they could wait for that potential to be tapped.<p>

As Lan watched the legendary war hero leave the room, he could not help but feel that he just let his dream of going overseas to help in the war had just slipped through his fingers. It really stung at him that he lost, but the sting of losing that NetBattle was nothing compared to the sting of despair he felt at now being able to truly make a difference yet he had to remain in his home country tucked away in a lab.

As he continued to wallow in his disappointment, Senator Ayanokoji approached him. Getting Lan's attention by tapping his shoulder, the senator said, "With all due respect to Colonel Baryl, I think we are missing the point here. I have seen you in action Lan. The country has seen it."

The senator motioned for his aide to bring him the newspaper, which he quickly showed to Lan. Looking at it, Lan saw there was a dual picture on the front page, with him using his make-shift shield on the left side, and MegaMan aiming his Buster at something outside the picture's border on the right, under a headline that read "Mystery Man and Navi Save Lives". The senator saw the look of surprise Lan got at this as he read and continued where he left off saying, "The enlistment lines have begun increasing and the selling rates of war bonds went up greatly ever since your efforts earlier and the article hit the newsstands. Now you do not take a soldier…no a symbol like that and lock him in a lab. What I want to ask you is do you want to serve your nation on the biggest battlefront there is?"

Hearing what the senator was offering, caused Lan to perk up a bit, and if he were to look at his PET right then he would have seen the same could be said for MegaMan. Knowing that this could be another chance to get out to the front lines, Lan simply stated, "Sir that is all I really want right now."

"Then congratulations," Ayanokoji stated with a smile. "You just got promoted, Captain."

Lan glanced at the hand for a moment and then accepted it in a firm handshake, feeling that he was finally going to get onto the battlefield to help end this war, and hopefully see his brother again.

* * *

><p>As it turned out, the "greatest battlefront" was actually just Lan and MegaMan becoming a promotional stunt for selling war bonds, and becoming a pair of child icon heroes and comic characters. In the shows that they had to perform, Lan wore a skin tight light blue bodysuit, large blue boots that went up to his knees, a blue glove on his left hand, in which he held a circular gold shield that had a blue border, and on his left a blue buster cannon with a yellow gauge. To complete his silly comic book hero like outfit, he also wore a blue helmet that went over his entire head save for his face. The show was relatively short, and had a single musical number performed by a group of female singers that was styled similar to a march called <em>The Cyber Fighting Men<em>, during which Lan gave a few advertising words to promote war bonds, and midway through he would be shown knocking out an actor who played Sigma Epsilon. Needless to say, Lan was not enjoying this too much, and to be honest neither was MegaMan.

For his part of the promotional stunts, MegaMan would normally be seen on a screen on the stage that would show him fighting enemy viruses as he and Lan gave their parts of the speech. When they were not doing the shows was actually a part that the blue clad Navi slightly enjoyed, as they had a few charity NetBattles against some of their fans to raise money to help soldiers who had returned home from the war or received serious injuries due to the war. It was almost always easy wins for MegaMan, but he still enjoyed getting a chance to actually be in a NetBattle over being stuck in a PET. Given the fact that the audiences they normally performed for were normally children, Lan and MegaMan were not that well prepared when their show's tour finally did bring them overseas to Netopia to one of the Hunter's base camps.

Needless to say, they did not give off a good impression on the soldiers. Lan and MegaMan were openly mocked by the guys who were on their side of the war; right up to the point where they were throwing the rotten food they had at the camp at them. Now MegaMan was somewhat safe in his PET, but Lan on the other hand had to duck behind his shield to defend himself before they both finally had enough and stormed off stage. They knew full well they were both turned into a pair of dancing monkeys, and that little scene they had just endured drove the point home.

Later that same day, MegaMan was sulking in his PET, while Lan was doing a sketch of a monkey wearing his costume doing tricks in a small notebook he had brought with him as a way of sulking himself as rain came down outside of the shelter they were provided by the make-shift stage. As Lan continued on his work, MegaMan spotted something through the PET screen that made him smirk a little bit at Lan for a moment, which was soon followed by a soft voice that called out, "Hello Lan."

Lan turned around and immediately perked up a bit at seeing Iris standing there, holding a dark colored coat over her head to keep the rain off. "Hi," Lan said quickly and happily. "What are you doing here?"

"Actually I'm not here, officially," Iris stated. "We received reports that the soldiers at this base had recently suffered an attack from Nebula forces and came in to investigate." She then gave Lan a small glance as she then asked, "And what about you? Doing alright I suppose."

Lan grimaced slightly as he turned away. "Yeah getting bonds sales to increase with every city MegaMan and I stop in."

"Not that either of us enjoy it that much," MegaMan stated simply, his annoyance with it clear in his voice.

"Was that Senator Ayanokoji's idea," Iris asked.

Lan shook his head a bit. "At least he's got us doing this," he grumbled. "If it went Baryl's way MegaMan and I would be stuck in a lab."

"So those are your only two options then? A pair of lab rats or a pair of dancing monkeys," Iris asked in a tone that said you could be doing better.

Lan then gazed sadly out at his surroundings. "For the longest time I have wanted to come overseas to the front lines, do what I could to help out and hopefully see my brother again. I finally got almost all that I wanted…and I am wearing tights like I'm some kind of ridiculous comic book or video game character."

"While I'm just some Navi that takes part in mock battles for charity," MegaMan added.

"I know this is not what either of you had in mind," Iris told them softly, with a tone that was understanding and caring, "but I know you were meant for something greater. Something better."

Lan looked at Iris for a moment, and felt an urge to hug her for that, but quickly suppressed it as he turned at the sounds of a vehicle pulling up and saw men rushing to get a doctor for the people that were aboard the vehicle. "They look like they have been through hell," he commented.

Iris turned to see what Lan was looking at and sighed with a small nod when she heard what Lan said. "These men more than most actually," she commented. "By the time we got here to try and provide support for fighting off the Nebula attack, they were already nearly beaten. What you are looking at is all that is left of the One-o-Seventh division of the Hunter forces after Nebula's attack."

Lan quickly turned to Iris when he heard that, worry and shock now etched into his face. "The One-o-Seventh," he cried out.

Iris instantly became worried when she saw Lan's expression, but before she could ask him what was wrong, he had grabbed his PET and run off leading her to follow behind him. He did not stop until he had reached the inside of the tent in which Baryl was looking over some of the reports. When Lan called out to him, the war hero looked up and said, "Well if it isn't one of the Cyber Fighting Men with a plan. What is your plan today?"

"I need the casualties list for the One-o-Seventh division," Lan stated, his tone desperate with worry.

"I am not at liberty to give that out to you," Baryl stated, now getting serious when he heard Lan's request.

"Please Baryl I just need one name. It's my brother Hub Hikari."

Baryl turned to Iris with an irritated expression when he saw her. "You and I are going to have a conversation later that you will not like young lady."

"Sir please," Lan all but begged.

Seeing the look of worry etched on Lan's face, Baryl finally relented as he stood up looking at one of the papers. "I have signed more of these letters of condolences than I care to remember, but the name does sound familiar," he stated grimly. He then turned to Lan with a sad, apologetic expression. "I'm sorry."

Lan was devastated by this news. He had just learned that his brother, the only family he had left, was now either being held by Nebula or probably dead and he could already feel his world crumbling around him. He could not stop himself from thinking about the last time he saw Hub was at that carnival just moments before he had met Doctor Light, and remembering that he had asked Hub to promise he would stay alive. As he glanced at the map that pin-pointed where the Nebula base was, he regained his composure and asked, "Have you started a rescue plan yet?"

"Yeah it's called 'winning the war'," Baryl replied as though he were stating the obvious.

Lan turned to him with a look of disbelief. "But if you think there is a chance they are still alive then shouldn't you do something?"

"Like what," Baryl retorted. "They are being held behind enemy lines, and if we were to try to launch a rescue effort we would lose more people than we would save. Of course I don't expect a soldier like you to understand that since you are currently just a chorus girl, and if I remember right, the posters said you have got somewhere to be."

Lan glared at Baryl for a moment, not believing the "Immortal Baryl" was not going to do anything to save these people, among which was Lan's brother. He then looked towards the map, staring at it long enough to memorize it and then left towards the equipment tent simply stating, "Yes sir. MegaMan and I do."

As soon as Lan entered the tent, he started gathering the equipment he felt he would need. Actual armor for soldiers, his shield, and an actual buster gauntlet instead of the fake one he wore in the shows. As he was packing a few other items into a backpack, he noted Iris coming into the tent hurriedly. "Do you seriously think you are just going to go in there alone," she demanded.

"I have to. Not just for my brother's sake, but for all those people," Lan stated.

"You heard what Baryl said, your brother may be dead. Besides Baryl is already working out a plan to…"

"By the time he has worked out a plan it may be too late," Lan stated as he finally finished packing, grabbing an actual battle helmet with a blue tinted visor on his way out of the tent. As he placed the items into the jeep he planned to take, he looked up and saw Iris standing on the other side of the vehicle. His expression softened as he then told her, "You told me that you believed that I was meant for something more. Did you mean it?"

Iris then got a good look into Lan's eyes and saw that no matter what she said, there would be nothing that could change Lan's mind, and she felt that the same could be said for MegaMan as well. Neither one of them noting how MegaMan stated that he was pretty sure she meant that she thought MegaMan and Lan both were meant for something more, as Iris finally nodded answering, "Every word."

"Then you have got to let me and MegaMan go," Lan stated as he climbed into the jeep. Before he could even start it however, Iris ran around to the driver's side and placed her hand on his, stopping him once again. Lan looked at her as Iris stated, "I can do more than that."

* * *

><p>A few hours later into the night, Lan was making his way through enemy territory with MegaMan keeping the PET's scanner primed to warn them of any enemy traps or incoming enemy forces. It turned out that Iris was right in saying that she could do more for them than just letting them go to save Hub and the others, as she had somehow convinced Shuseki Blaze to fly them into the enemy's airspace. The plan was for them to fly over close to the Nebula base and then let Lan air drop in as Blaze took the plane back to allied territory. While they were in the air, Lan did a final check to make sure he had everything he thought he might need, going so far as to make sure he had the pair of custom roller skates on him as well.<p>

While he did that, Iris decided to give him an additional battle chip that was colored blue with a strange black pattern circling a green sphere in the center. Iris then told him that Nebula used a special kind of technology to protect their bases and allow viruses and sometimes NetNavis to materialize into the real world called a Dimensional Area, and that the chip would allow him and MegaMan to even the playing field, but the effects would only work if they were inside the Dimensional Area. Lan could not help but wonder what she had meant by that, but he did not have much more time to wonder as the plane had suddenly met an Anti-air barrage. Lan then decided to jump early and told Iris that as soon as he was clear to turn the plane around and head back to friendly territory. When Iris tried to stop him by saying that he could not give her orders his only reply to that was simply, "The hell I can't. I'm a captain."

So now here he was, making his way through enemy territory. Whether or not it was truly Maverick territory or just Nebula territory, neither he nor anyone who was not a part of said forces could say, but at the moment Lan and MegaMan could not care less since they knew their destination was the inside of the Nebula base just a short ways away now. After stowing away on a Nebula transport that was heading into the base and knocking out a few guards as stealthily as he could, Lan was finally inside the base.

Once he was inside, Lan started sneaking around trying to find anything he could to help him find where the prisoners were kept or just about Nebula's plans. As he searched, Lan spotted some strange cubes, some the size of small rectangular batteries while others were large enough to be the size of a car battery, and they all seemed to give off a strange grey glow of some kind. Before Lan could ponder this further MegaMan called out to him.

"What is it MegaMan," Lan asked as soon as he had brought out the PET and had the screen where he could see the NetNavi.

"I do not know what it is, but there is something about these cubes that is giving me a strange feeling," MegaMan explained. "I'm sensing something in them, like an old but powerful program that could easily equal or even surpass a typical custom NetNavi."

"That is weird. We should probably take one of these smaller ones back with us so Blaze can analyze it himself," Lan decided as he pocketed one of the small battery sized cubes. He looked around and then noticed something that showed him exactly what Iris was talking about earlier by beings of the cyber world existing in the human world.

Lan had to blink twice and rub his eyes to make sure he was not seeing things, but all it did was prove that he was not. The building was oddly colored, and there were viruses walking alongside Nebula guards, acting as additional guards. He saw everything from Swordy to Mettaurs patrolling the walkways and ground floor around the machinery, to Canodumbs placed in key positions alongside sniper guards and multiple other viruses. Lan noted that a number of the viruses were either wood or rock type viruses, so that meant if he and MegaMan had to fight them they would need fire and breaking type battle chips to have an advantage over them. Finally, after having MegaMan jack into the cyber network of one of the computers to retrieve some map data of the facility, he discovered where they were keeping their prisoners. After he quickly logged MegaMan out of the system they used, he made his way over to the prison block, making sure to avoid the guards and not get spotted as he went.

Finally reaching the holding cells, Lan spotted a single guard and about three Swordys guarding the cells as he ducked behind a corner so he could stay hidden from view for the moment. He took a quick glance at the prisoners and while he did not see Hub, he did see that the prisoners' PETs were being kept in a special case at the end of the hall along with a few people who stuck out a bit. Among them were a tall man with a small goatee and a red helmet with a fish fin on the top and a black visor, a woman with green hair who looked to be into flowers, a woman with bluish-green hair in a black and purple outfit who seemed almost like a fortune teller, and a man with an orange cap with green sunglasses, green torso armor, and tan colored pants that ended in orange boots. After getting another brief glance to see that Hub did not seem to be among these prisoners, Lan moved in and knocked out the guard, while deleting the Swordy viruses with a blast from his buster gauntlet's blaster mode. The prisoners quickly got up from where they were sitting as Lan made his way to the human guard and retrieved a key, while switching his gauntlet back to its default mode. The woman with green hair then looked at Lan and asked, "Who are you supposed to be?"

"Uh…Captain Hikari and MegaMan," Lan replied.

"I beg your pardon," the fish helmeted man asked. "Last I checked Hub Hikari was a sergeant and his NetNavi was named X."

"Hub's my brother. I'm Captain **_Lan_** Hikari, and my NetNavi is named MegaMan," Lan replied, after finally getting the keys lose from the guard's belt and started unlocking the cells.

"So you're Lan huh," the man commented. "Hub's talked about you a lot. Commander Masa, the last commanding officer of the One-o-Seventh division for the Electopian forces." He then looked at Lan as he nodded in greeting and continued to free prisoners. "Wait a minute, are we taking everyone with us?"

The man in the green armor walked up and flashed his dog tags at Masa. "I'm from Swapopolis fish monger," he stated. Masa just grunted in acknowledgement of that and moved to follow Lan to the exit along with the others after they had all retrieved their PETs, the only one absent being Hub's.

"Commander," Lan asked. "I'm also looking for my brother. Do you know where he is?"

Masa adopted a grim expression as he replied. "Yes. They came for him a while ago to drag him off to Yahoot's lab. He always takes prisoners there for God only knows what, and most of them never come back."

Lan nodded. "Alright I'm going to go and get him," Lan began. "About three minutes after I leave I want you to take everyone here and charge for the exit. There is a Hunter base camp a few miles out straight ahead. We'll meet you later."

"Hey," Masa called out, stopping Lan for a moment. "Are you sure you and your NetNavi know what you are doing?"

Lan smirked in reply. "Yeah. I've knocked out Sigma Epsilon at least a dozen times now and MegaMan has at least three or four times that number of victories in NetBattles."

Masa and the others stared after Lan in amazement at that as the blue armored soldier raced off in the direction that Masa had indicated. The visor and helmet wearing man was shocked by this news, but did not have time to dwell on it as he turned to the group that surrounded him. "Alright, we are going to need to give those two boys all the time they can get to get their jobs done so we will divide up into three groups. Sal," he called out indicating the green haired woman. "You take these troops and get us some decent armor that we can use against these bunch of land lovers."

"Understood Commander," Sal replied as she led a group off towards the armory.

Masa then turned to the bluish-green haired girl. "Miyu, your group will need to raid the enemy system's network to make sure all their security systems cannot stop our escape efforts and get their shielding systems down so we can escape."

"Roger that," Miyu replied and she indicated a group to follow her.

Masa then turned to the remaining soldiers. "The rest of you are with me. We will be giving them the distraction they all need by storming out there and taking out their soldiers and seizing their vehicles and weapons for ourselves. Hey Swapopolis boy…"

"My name is Tora old man," said Swapopolis native retorted.

"Hey watch your mouth sonny boy, cause you are with me," Masa replied with a glare. Not much later, the small prison riot had started, with Sal's group retrieving the armor they would need, and Miyu's group disabling the most troublesome security measures it was a small matter of work for Masa's group to handle the outside guards in the Nebula installation's courtyard. This was especially true when Masa and Tora had seized one the Nebula specialized mobile assault vehicles and started blasting away at any enemy machine or soldier that was unfortunate enough to land in their sights.

* * *

><p>From inside a control room, Wily and Yahoot were watching this chaos of a prison break unfold. The two had ventured to the facility to make sure its production was on schedule only to have to order its caretaker, Yui Hazuki, to double up production due to her concerns for the workers. There were days when Yahoot wondered why this girl was considered one of Nebula's strongest warriors when she was so timid, shy, and compassionate until he remembered who her NetNavi was. Further inspections by the two major figures in Nebula were halted when they stopped at the security room and saw the break taking place. As the Nebula leader looked at the various screens that displayed the images being recorded by the security cameras he saw something that made him pause.<p>

There on that one screen was a man in a blue body suit and dark blue armor that appeared to be racing through the facility on a pair of roller skates. When he came across a Nebula guard with a small group of viruses, he struck down the human guard with his shield and blasted the viruses with his buster gauntlet's blaster mode. He did not need to get a perfect look at the man to know who it was and what actions now needed to be taken, and thus he began to flip the necessary switches for starting the facility's self destruct system. When Yui saw her leader doing this she quickly raced over to stop him.

"No Lord Wily! What are you doing," the girl softly protested in her shy, timid tone of voice. Yahoot also saw this and gave their leader a questioning glance.

"Our forces are outmatched," Wily stated as he gestured to the screen he was watching a moment ago. When the two looked they saw Lan Hikari skating through the hallways towards Yahoot's personal lab.

Yui was now worried a bit, as she had heard stories of what this Lan Hikari person could do from what people had heard of the reports on what happened to BombMan and his NetOp. "See to it that neither he nor his NetNavi leaves here alive Yui," Wily ordered.

Yui nodded with a stern look and a cold, calculating type of confidence that was not present before as she replied, "As you command Lord Wily. Hail Nebula."

Wily nodded and moved to leave the room with Yahoot, who turned to walk towards the lab. When Wily asked why he was heading there Yahoot replied in his usual calm tones, "I need to retrieve some vital notes and data for my research and our other projects that I had kept there. I fear that if any of it were to fall into the Hunter forces' hands it could cause us some great deal of trouble Lord Wily."

"See to it that you do so quickly, and delete whatever other data is not important," Wily commanded as he resumed moving to his new destination. "I will meet you at the elevator."

* * *

><p>As Lan struck down another human guard, he swung out with his left leg and kicked another one hard before leaving them both unconscious and skating away down the hallway. As soon as the prisoners' distraction had started, a majority of the Nebula soldiers and viruses had moved outside to deal with them, but that did not mean there were not still some left inside for him to deal with. Not that he minded all that much; he actually found it to be a good stress reliever in all honesty, but it was slowing down his progress to finding Hub. He soon came around another corner and saw a man with dark skin dressed in a yoga practitioner's outfit with a short ponytail and a large brief case in his hand leaving a nearby room. When the man turned and saw Lan, he immediately began to run away from him. Before Lan could pursue this person, MegaMan stopped him.<p>

"What is it," Lan asked the blue clad Navi.

"I heard something, or someone in that room there," MegaMan replied pointing to the room from inside the PET.

Lan immediately turned and ran inside the room, and the first thing he saw was a dark blue PET that he recognized instantly as his brother Hub's. He immediately raced over and called out into its microphone, "X! X its Lan! Can you hear me X?!"

After Lan received no response from his brother's NetNavi, he tried disconnecting it to get X to log out, but it did not work. That led Lan to believe that something was blocking X's signal to the PET. He then heard a soft moan, and turned to its source only to gasp in shock at what he saw, or rather who he saw tied down to what he could only assume was an experimentation bed.

"Oh my god! Hub," Lan called out as he raced over. He then used his shield to cut one of the restraints lose and carefully aimed his buster gauntlet's blaster mode as he fired on the remaining restraints.

Hub started to stir at the sound of someone trying to break him free, and looked towards the person. The problem was his vision was blurry and he was still so weak from Yahoot's latest tests on him that he could not make out who it was at first, and all he could ask was a soft, "Wh…who are..?"

"It's me Hub. Hub it's me, Lan," Lan replied.

"Lan," Hub repeated softly, slightly shocked, but that shock quickly turned to pure joy as he smiled as brightly as he could while his twin helped him get free and off the bed.

The two brothers gave each other a tight hug once Hub was on his feet, before holding each other at arm's length. Lan's joy at seeing his brother alive could not be made more obvious by his smile or when he simply told Hub, "I thought you were dead."

Hub then gave Lan a quick look up and down as he replied, "Well that makes us even, because I thought you were smaller."

Lan chuckled at that when he suddenly remembered, "Hub what about X? Is he alright?"

Hub nodded and indicated the computer that his PET was plugged into. "They had jacked him into that computer there to do experiments on him at the same time as me," Hub explained.

"Then that's where we need to go to get him out," Lan said confidently as he helped Hub over to the machine so his brother could jack out X at the first opportunity he had.

"Lan those viruses and security measures in there are strong. X could not fight them off, so what chance does Rock have?"

"Who said anything about Rock going in," Lan replied to Hub's question with a smirk. He then whipped out his PET's jack in plug as he shouted out, "Jack In! MegaMan, Power up!"

A moment later MegaMan had materialized into the network and saw X strapped down to an experimentation bed like Hub had been, surrounded by what he assumed were standard Nebula Navis. He quickly armed himself with his Mega Buster and opened fire. A few shots from a Blaster battle chip provided by Lan later, and MegaMan had eliminated all the enemy Navis. He then ran over to X and used his buster to free his fellow blue clad Navi who repeated the same question Hub had asked a moment ago.

"X it's me, Rock," MegaMan replied proudly. "But a little heads up, call me MegaMan now."

"Rock," X breathed out in shock as he could not believe that the standard Navi had now become this incredibly powered and battle honed custom Navi.

"Glad to see you're still in one piece pal," MegaMan told X as he helped him up.

X gave a small smile at that and replied, "Well I'm glad to see that you finally got remade into a custom NetNavi."

The two Navis chuckled for a minute as MegaMan told Hub to log out X. As soon as X was back in his PET, Lan moved to log out MegaMan, but was soon stopped by the blue Navi. "Lan I think there's some kind of map data here," MegaMan explained.

Sure enough, there seemed to be a digital representation of a map just a few feet away from MegaMan. As he moved closer to examine it better, he realized that the locations on the map were of all the known Nebula bases except for the main command base itself. "I'm going to download a copy to your PET and commit some of it to memory," MegaMan said.

"Well hurry, because we need to get out of here quickly," Lan told MegaMan.

"Lan what happened to you and Rock," Hub asked.

"We joined the army," Lan replied proudly. Just then the door sealed shut on its own.

"What happened," Hub asked. He and Lan then heard a cry of pain from MegaMan and looked to see that he had been knocked onto his back by an unknown force.

"Sorry but you two and your Navis will not be leaving here alive," a female voice said over the intercom. Lan turned and looked to see a woman in a business like suit, with dark brown hair looking down on them from an observation booth which had a hard copy of the map pinned to the wall behind her.

"So do you think you can stop us," Lan asked.

"Yes," the woman replied. "Of course, StoneMan and I will be doing far more than that."

Lan turned back to his PET screen and saw that MegaMan was facing a giant NetNavi. The large behemoth had a cube for his main body, two oval shaped feet and cylindrical shaped arms with no hand. Both his arms and feet were not connected directly to his body, but rather seemed to be held there by some invisible force. His head was mounted on the front of his cube shaped body and was rounded at the front with two glowing gold eyes in black squares on the front. His Navi emblem was on both his left and right sides of the main body, and was a simple white cube on a black background.

"So you're the great MegaMan who defeated BombMan," the giant sized Navi chuckled.

"Yeah and I'm guessing you know about me either from some reports on what we did to BombMan, or you've seen mine and Lan's movies and became a fan," MegaMan quipped.

The behemoth Navi let out a humorless chuckle as he replied. "I assure you I am no fan, and you will find that compared to BombMan, I am an entirely different league of NetNavi. You're little escapade ends here, because no one faces StoneMan and lives to tell the tale."

"We'll see about that," MegaMan said getting to his feet once again, and assuming a battle stance while his mouth guard activated, showing he was ready for action.

"I'm with you MegaMan, lets break this stone mountain apart into little pebbles," Lan said confidently.

Yui chuckled darkly at that as she retorted, "You are wasting your time. As StoneMan had already stated, none have faced him and lived, and I assure you that shall not change today."

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Initially, I was going to make it so that the whole mission to free Hub and the other prisoners from the Nebula base was one chapter, but then I saw that there was already so much in this chapter so I figured that I would have to split it into two chapters so Cliffhanger! I know, I'm evil like that. In the case of StoneMan's NetOp, I figured I'd just not bother coming up with an OC character or a nameless one and just give him the Asteroid StoneMan's NetOp from Stream. I know her personality seems a bit different from the anime's version but to be fair in this version she actually decided to be a bad guy so I've gotta change a few things about her. With that said...<strong>_

_****_Next chapter, Lan and MegaMan face off with StoneMan, and soon after they come face to face with Wily himself. With the base beginning to explode around them, things take a turn for the worst as the battle against StoneMan moves to an unexpected battlefield against Navis, the real world. When this happens Lan and MegaMan must do whatever it takes to beat StoneMan, which will lead them to discover the secret behind the mysterious blue chip that Iris had entrusted to them as they unleash a new power that has never been seen before. A power known as…_****_

**_ Tune in next time for the conclusion of the first mission, Lan and MegaMan's first encounter with a Nebula elite warrior and the face of their true greatest enemy in the war, and the true birth of the First Net Saver._**


End file.
